ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 842 / C&RL News ■ Septem ber 2001 N e w P u b l i c a t i o n s George M. Eberhart Bucks C o u n ty : A n Illu s tra te d H istory, by Terry A. McNealy (326 pages, Ju n e 2001), is a w onderfully illustrated history o f so m e of Pennsylvania’s earliest settlem ents an d the hom e o f its f ounder William Penn. T hanks to its strategic location betw een Philadelphia and New York, Bucks C ounty has b e e n a n impor­ tant stage in Am erican his­ tory: its original occupation by the Lenape Indians and t h e infam ous lan d g rab o f 1737 k n ow n as the Walking P urchase, w hich set th e to n e for later lopsided Indian real­ e state sw indles; th e Conti­ nental Army’s d eploym ent in the county in the strategic de­ fense o f Philadelphia during th e R evolutionary War; the F r ie s R e b e l li o n o f 1798 against th e seem ingly auto­ cratic policies o f President J o h n Adam s; th e tran sp o rt revolutions o f th e D elaware Canal a nd the Philadelphia & T renton Railroad; the conflicted sentim ents o f Bucks County residents toward slavery prior to th e Civil War; th e influence o f th e Q uakers o n th e culture o f the county; an d the Penn­ sylvania Im pressionist artists an d literary fig­ u res o f th e early 20th century w h o m ade Bucks C ounty their hom e. All this is d o cu ­ m en ted by h istorian McNealy, w h o served as librarian for th e B ucks C o unty H istorical Society’s S pruance Library from 1971 to 1993. $49-95. Bucks C ounty Historical Society, 84 South Pine Street, Doylestown, PA 18901-4999. ISBN 0-910302-01-4. The D e cipherm e nt o f A n c ie n t M aya W rit­ in g , edited by Stephen H ouston, O sw aldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, a n d David Stuart (551 pages, J u n e 2001), is no t a gram m ar or dic­ tionary o f the language, n o r is it a detective George M. Eberhart is senior e d ito r o f American Libraries; e-mail: geberhart@ala.org story a b o u t h o w th e M ayan g lyphs w ere d e ­ cod ed . (For that, co n su lt M ichael D. C oe’s Breaking the M aya Code, p u b l is h e d b y T ham es an d H u d so n in 1992.) Rather it is a collection o f several centuries w o rth o f hard- to-find w ritings o n th e m any a ttem pts a t d e ­ cipherm ent, from th e bo o k -b u rn in g D iego d e Landa’s m isg u id ed dis­ cern m en t o f an a lp h ab et in th e 1560s to the “n e w e p ig ­ raphy” o f the 1980s an d later, w hich com bines a systematic search for phonetic values in each glyph with a n exam i­ nation o f its contextual and iconographic content. Some o f the sources are translated into English for the first tim e from the original Spanish or German, a nd all are by schol­ ars w h o have m ade signifi­ c a n t c o n tr ib u tio n s in th e field, a m o n g th e m D aniel B r i n to n , C y ru s T h o m a s , S y lv a n u s M o rle y , P a u l Schellhas, Eric T hom pson, Yuri Knorosov, Jean Genet, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, a nd David Stuart. An im portant sourcebook for any seri­ ous M esoam erican collection. $65.00. Univer­ sity o f O klahom a. ISBN 0-8061-3204-3. The Encyclopedia o f th e M usical Theatre, by Kurt Gänzl (3 vols., 2d ed., J u n e 2001), upd ates th e 1994 two-volum e edition with 500 n e w a n d 4,000 revised articles, and m any n e w photos o f perform ers a n d productions. Much o f the n e w em phasis is o n British p ro ­ vincial theatre a n d th e Am erican stage o u t­ side N ew York, than k s to Gänzl’s painstak­ ing exam ination o f microfilm runs o f The Era, The Clipper, an d New York Dramatic Mirror. H e has also filled in n um erous gaps in birth an d d eath inform ation in the biographies, m aking this a worthw hile upgrade. T he e n ­ tries o n specific show s a re lively a n d qualita­ tive, alm ost review-like, bu t nev er skim py on facts. $295.00. S chirm er/G ale. ISBN 0-02- 864970-2. mailto:geberhart@ala.org C&RL News ■ Se p te m b er 2001 / 843 Place N a m e s : H o w T h e y D e fin e th e W o r ld — a n d M o re , b y Richard R. Randall (201 pag es, F eb ru ary 2001), ex p lain s h o w g e o g rap h ic p lac e nam es a re stan d ard ized , u sed , categ o rized , a n d c h an g ed . W ritten by a g e o g ra p h e r w h o w a s e x e cu tiv e secretary o f th e U.S. B o a rd o n G e o g ra p h ic N am es (BGN) fo r 20 y ears, this b o o k serves as a u seful in tro d u c tio n to n am in g conv en tio n s, sources, a n d disp u tes. In clu d e d a re p r o b ­ lem s w ith transliteratio n m eth o d s, evolving political correctness in th e U n ited States, an d p ost-C old W ar c hanges. (W h en U kraine b e ­ cam e in d e p e n d e n t from Russia in 1991, it b e g a n t o c h a n g e m o re t h a n 90 p e rc e n t o f its p lac e n a m e s.) P e rh ap s m o st im p o rta n t are R andall’s insights into h o w th e BGN a n d the U nited N ations G ro u p o f Ex­ p erts o n G eographic Nam es h ave w o rk ed to prom ote stan­ d a rd iz a tio n . $35.00. S care­ crow . ISBN 0-8108-3906-7. The Tarzan No vels o f Edgar Rice B u rro u g h s , by David A. U llery ( 2 9 8 p a g e s , M arch 2001), is a r e a d e r ’s g u id e to T arzan th e A pem an, o th e r ­ w i s e k n o w n a s L o r d G reystoke, a n d o th e r in h ab ­ itants o f t h e fictional jungles d r ea m e d u p b y B urroughs in n ovels a n d stories w ritten b e ­ t w e e n 1914 a n d his d e a th in 1950. Still bizarrely reso n a n t w ith so m e rea d e rs after all t h ese y ears, this b o o k serves as a g u id e to a w o rld as co m p le x as a n y th in g th at Tolkien o r t h e Star Trek scriptw riters h av e d r ea m e d u p . T h e first p a rt gives a b io g rap h ical o v e r­ v iew o f Tarzan, listing th e n a m e s various p e o p le c alled him as w ell as th e m an y girl­ friends h e h a d (n o t just J a n e fo r this jungle b oy). O th e r ch a p te rs o ffer an A pe-E nglish/ English-Ape glossary; descrip tio n s o f lost cit­ ies, civilizations, a n d eth n ic g ro u p s T arzan ran into; descriptions o f ev ery m ajor a n d m i­ n o r character; a n d sum m aries o f all the books. $45.00. M cFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0825-1. Y o u m a y a l s o w i s h t o c o n s i d e r M cFarland’s s o ftb o u n d J uly 2001 rep rin t o f D avid F ury’s Kings o f the Jungle: Tarzan on Screen a n d Television, originally p u b lish e d in 199 4 w i t h a f o r e w o r d b y M a u r e e n O ’Sullivan. T his p ro v id e s c a st lists a n d d e ­ tailed b a c k g ro u n d in fo rm a tio n o n all th e T arzan sc re e n a d a p tatio n s, illustrated w ith m an y stills. $25.00. ISBN 0-7864-1109-0. I f y o u m is s e d t h is p u b l i s h e r ’s o t h e r B urro u g h s refe ren c e b o o k s, th ey a re b o th still in p r in t a n d w o r t h y c h r o n i c le s o f B arsoom , Pellucidar, C aprona, a n d o th e r se ­ ries: The Burroughs Cyclopaedia, b y Clark A. B rady (1996, $55.00); a n d Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Exhaustive Scholar’s a n d Collector’s Descriptive Bibliography, b y R ob­ e rt B. Z e u sc h n er (1996, $46.50). V ic t o r ia n S e n s a tio n , by Ja m e s A. Secord (624 p a g es, F eb ru ary 2001), co n stitu tes an in -d e p th e x am in atio n o f th e v ast effects th at o n e b o o k — a relatively o b ­ scu re o n e to m o d e rn r ea d ­ ers— h a d o n th e b eliefs, s e n ­ sibilities, w ritings, p h ilo s o ­ p h y , a n d t e m p e r a m e n t o f V ictorian society. P u b lish ed an o n y m o u sly in 1844, Ves­ tiges o f the Natural History o f Creation w as a n o d d b len d o f historical fiction, p o p u la r s c ie n c e , p h r e n o l o g y , f re e th o u g h t, a n d p re-D arw inian evolutionary specu latio n that offered its rea d e rs a jou rn ey from th e b e g in n in g s o f th e u n iv e r s e t h ro u g h th e p r o ­ gressio n o f sp e cie s to th e ul­ tim ate d e v e lo p m e n t o f h u ­ m an spirituality a n d reaso n . Its a uthor, Scottish w riter a n d n aturalist R ob­ e rt C ham bers, m an a g e d to p rese rv e h is a n o ­ nym ity for 40 years, a feat th at m agnified the b o o k ’s intrigue e n o u g h to su stain it th ro u g h 14 e d itio n s a n d 40,000 co p ie s sold. H ow ­ ever, Victorian Sensation is m u ch m o re th an th e b io g ra p h y o f a b o o k ; S ecord o nly uses Vestiges as a w e ll-d o c u m e n te d c ase stu d y to dem onstrate h o w p o p u lar a n d scientific read ­ in g itself e v o lv e d d u rin g th e m id-19th cen ­ tury. I n his o w n w o rd s, it is a “full-length p ictu re o f h o w a substantial ran g e o f c o n ­ te m p o rary rea d e rs m ad e m ea n in g fro m a single w o rk .” This v o lu m e is e ru d ite, w ell- footnoted, insightful, om niscient, a n d alw ays interestin g (esp ecially to librarians a n d bib ­ liophiles). $35 00. University o f Chicago. ISBN 0-226-74410-8. ■